Sermons

The opening days of our annual spiritual mobilization begins with the dawning of the month of Ellul (September 4). In the minds of many the recitation of penitential prayers and confessional prayers foreshadows the “day of reckoning” Yom Kippur. But some dare to seek another motivation! For thirty days leading up to the new year […]

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy […]

The 15th of Av, considered to be the Jewish equivalent of Valentine’s Day, was already celebrated during last week’s Shabbat. However, it is in this week’s Torah portion and Haftarah that we read about love: the love of God towards people and of people towards God. Already in the second sentence of our Torah portion […]

Do the teachings about the Temple (Beit HaMikdash) and the Exile (Galut) Remain Relevant? This coming Shabbat is the 9th Day of Av, Tisha b-Av. The Shabbat’s Torah reading is the opening of Moses’ oration encompassing most of the book Deuteronomy (Devarim). We will focus on this book next week. Our focus this week is […]

The double Torah portion Matot-Masei concludes the Book of Bemidbar – it therefore ends the history of the Exodus from Egypt – we could say that it “brings the Torah to a conclusion” (the Book of Devarim is a recollection of the events described in the previous Books of Torah). Before the Israelites enter the […]

Pinchas is an extremely problematic figure. The Jewish tradition developed several radically different approaches in teaching about this Torah portion. To bring you up to date. At the end of last week’s Torah portion Pinchas acts as judge, jury, and executioner. In his righteous indignation he kills a prince of the Jewish people, Zimri and […]

This week’s Torah portion Balak is the only parasha in the entire Torah in which the conveyed events are made known to us not because the Israelites participated in them (they were the ones who witnessed all the other events described in the Torah). Rather, we find out about them due to the instructions of […]

This week’s Torah portion Chukat (Numbers 19:1 to 21:1) is a rich trove of paradoxical challenges. Understanding this Torah portion led our sages into new depths of textual and conceptual ingenuity. At the center of this Torah portion is the arational ritual of the parah adamah, “red heifer.” The red heifer ceremony addresses the search […]

A year has passed since the Israelites left Egypt. That is enough time to forget the bitterness of slavery, humiliation and persecution. This period of time was long enough for the process of the idealization of the past to begin. Now Egypt seems like a land flowing with milk and honey, and the choice to […]

Moses is confronted by the mob: “If only we had meat to eat!” (Numbers 11:4). This demand comes a little over two years into their sojourn out of slavery. They were encamped at the foot of Mount Sinai until very recently. The journey was recently resumed and the challenges appear. Apparently the heavenly food called […]

About Beit Warszawa

Our mission is to develop and promote the Jewish religious culture and heritage.
To promote a society where racism and intolerance have no place; and
to promote understanding and cooperation among cultures and religions.